December 2011 Net Worth Update (+$18,477)

Assets	Nov-11	Dec-11	Change	%
Cash & Savings	$ 22,960.53	$ 27,882.26	$ 4,921.73	21.44%
Taxable Brokerage Accts	$ 152,906.99	$ 158,906.63	$ 5,999.64	3.92%
Roth IRAs	$ 77,482.86	$ 82,652.93	$ 5,170.07	6.67%
Pre-tax Retirement Accts	$ 270,954.68	$ 272,245.83	$ 1,291.15	0.48%
Stock Options	$ -	$ -	$ -
ESPP	$ 932.82	$ 921.38	$ (11.44)	-1.23%
Property #1 - Rental	$ 160,000.00	$ 160,000.00	$ -	0.00%
Property #2 - Rental	$ 128,225.00	$ 128,225.00	$ -	0.00%
Property #3 - Primary	$ 300,000.00	$ 300,000.00	$ -	0.00%
Property #4 - Rental	$ 163,000.00	$ 163,000.00	$ -
Receivable (Payable)	$ -	$ -	$ -
Other Assets	$ -	$ -	$ -
Total Assets	$ 1,276,462.88	$ 1,293,834.03	$ 17,371.15	1.36%
Liabilities
Credit Card Balances	$ (1,254.85)	$ (2,257.51)	$ (1,002.66)	79.90%
House #1 Mortgages	$ (82,195.52)	$ (79,417.95)	$ 2,777.57	-3.38%
House #2 Mortgages	$ (7,081.37)	$ (8,260.85)	$ (1,179.48)	16.66%
House #3 Mortgages	$ (251,056.20)	$ (250,693.34)	$ 362.86	-0.14%
House #4 Mortgages	$ (121,955.62)	$ (121,807.51)	$ 148.11	-0.12%
Rental Deposits	$ (5,902.72)	$ (5,902.72)	$ -	0.00%
Additional Tax Liability	$ -	$ -	$ -
Other Liabilities			$ -
Total Liabilities	$ (469,446.28)	$ (468,339.88)	$ 1,106.40	-0.24%
$2million Goal Progress*	$ 758,072.80	$ 776,187.49	$ 18,114.69	2.39%
Net Worth	$ 807,016.60	$ 825,494.15	$ 18,477.55	2.29%

Highlights for December

We like to take advantage of 0% APR balance transfers and other credit card promotions. We are actively looking at taking advantage of new credit card additional arbitrage opportunities. We recently earned 200k British Airway miles for $190 which we used on our transatlantic journey
We are in the process of earning 50k in Chase Rewards (or ~$500) on a new Chase Ink credit card offer after we spend $5,000 in 3months. We are using Amazon Payments to maximize our credit card spend to qualify.
Our properties are listed on our balance sheet based on their cost basis, not current market value. I believe real estate is too illiquid to list based on recent sale transactions.
We made another significant principal payment in our Rental #1 primary mortgage. Our current focus has been to pay off this mortgage loan to improve our monthly cash flow. I'm hoping we can regularly paydown approx. $2,000/mo which should eliminate the mortgage in less than 2 years. This will be our default investment for free cash each month unless I see a much more attractive opportunity.
December was a surprisingly strong month for us especially given all the holiday spending. Our taxable investments did significantly better than our benchmark (VTI) in December. I'll post additional details of our investment activities in December later this month.
We spent some time performing investment loss tax harvesting in December and sold positions in Lowe's, Radian, and Dryships to harvest some tax losses. We didn't make any notable investments other than our normal DCA investments in the month.
This wraps up the finishing touches on another positive year for us. Our net worth grew $72,974 in 2011.

Related in Net Worth Archive:

May 2012 Net Worth Update (-$28,098) (Jun 10, 2012) Highlights for MayWe like to take advantage of 0% APR balance transfers and other credit card offers for free money. We are actively looking at taking advantage of new credit card arbitrage opportunities. Our properties are listed on our...

April 2012 Net Worth Update (+$2,763) (May 09, 2012) Highlights for AprilWe like to take advantage of 0% APR balance transfers and other credit card offers for free money. We are actively looking at taking advantage of new credit card arbitrage opportunities. We received $1,000+ in rewards cash...

March 2012 Net Worth Update (+$22,032) (Apr 11, 2012) Highlights for MarchWe like to take advantage of 0% APR balance transfers and other credit card offers for free money. We are actively looking at taking advantage of new credit card arbitrage opportunities. We are close to earning ~$1,000...

Comments (5)

Wow, nice investing year for you 2million, with a 73K net worth increase! Great job. Ours increased 65K and I'm happy with that. Anytime I am able to come close to the gains of 2million, I consider that a success!

Posted by Steve | January 4, 2012 10:50 PM

It looks like the balance for mortgage #2 went up from $7081 to $8260 in December 2011. Is this a mistake?

Posted by RJ | January 6, 2012 10:01 AM

RJ - Nope - good catch I should have mentioned that. I paid property taxes for the rental from our equity line. I figured I would focus on paying down the more expensive mortgage on property #1 rather than using cash to pay the taxes - so think of it as a transfer of debt from prop #1 to prop #2.

Posted by 2million | January 6, 2012 10:57 AM

I have a question relating to your properties? I see that you are heavily leverage with real estate and most likely you will keep buying rental homes in the future. Compared to your income how much cash flow do these homes actualy generate for you? I assume you are earning more than the mortgage/tax payments. The reason I am asking is because I would like to pursue a similar route with real estate, but where I live the taxes are very high and I am unsure if I will even make a profit or increase my monthly cashflow.

Posted by RichUncle EL | January 9, 2012 4:02 PM

RichUncleEl,
There are a couple posts that touch on this-> return on rental property analysis for 1st year; summary of latest rental property cash flow. Let me know if there are other specifics you are looking for and I'll see if I can provide.

Posted by 2million | January 9, 2012 7:54 PM